Storage

Ranked by round-trip efficiency, the share of stored energy you get back, together with usable depth of discharge and cycle life, since a battery you can only half-empty stores half of what it nominally holds. Lithium iron phosphate leads on all three. Compressed air loses a large fraction as heat during compression, which is the physical reason it trails despite having no chemistry to degrade.

Solutions

• Battery bank (low-voltage DC): Stores DC generation for use when the sun/wind/water isn't available.
• Lithium (LiFePO4) battery bank with integrated BMS: LiFePO4 cells with an integrated battery management system, usable to roughly 80-100% depth of discharge and rated for 3,000-6,000 cycles, versus roughly 50% Do
• Small-scale compressed-air energy storage (CAES): Stores surplus electricity by compressing air into a pressure vessel and recovers it later through an expander/air motor driving a generator. A non-electrochemi